Rare David Bowie ‘Space Oddity’ recordings getting vinyl treatment

Nine 7″ single vinyl box set will be released this spring

Parlophone Records announces the release of a 7″ vinyl singles box set featuring nine previously unreleased recordings from the “Space Oddity” era. The news comes on what would’ve been Bowie’s 72nd birthday and marks 50 years since the release of “Space Oddity,” Bowie’s first hit.

Spying Through A Keyhole, is a lyric taken from the previously unknown song: “Love All Around,” and though most of the other titles are known, these versions have never been officially released until late last year when the label released them digitally for a limited in December. Most of the recordings are solo vocal and acoustic home demo performances, unless otherwise stated.

Spying Through A Keyhole will be limited to a vinyl only release in the spring. However, the recordings may appear in the future on other formats. More details and actual release date to follow from Parlophone.

Due to the nature of some of the solo home demos where Bowie accompanied himself on acoustic guitar, the recording quality isn’t always of a usual studio fidelity. This is partly due to Bowie’s enthusiastic strumming hitting the red on a couple of the tracks, along with the limitations of the original recording equipment and tape degradation. However, the historical importance of these songs and the fact that the selections are from an archive of tracks cleared for release by Bowie, overrides this shortcoming.

Mother Grey (demo) – This mid-tempo tale of a fledgling son fleeing the nest features multi-tracked vocals, guitars and harmonica from David.

In The Heat Of The Morning (demo) – A well-known early Bowie song but presented here in demo form with final lyrics.

Goodbye 3d (Threepenny) Joe (demo) – A charming demo from 1968.

Love All Around (demo) – A delightful love song from whence the title of this collection came: “I see a pop tune spying through a keyhole from the other room.”

London Bye, Ta-Ta (demo) – An early demo version of the song with completely different lyrics in a couple of the verses compared to those of the later full band versions.

Angel, Angel, Grubby Face (demo version 1) – The first and only previously known demo of this song.

Angel, Angel, Grubby Face (demo version 2) – A later version of the same song with alternative lyrics.

Space Oddity (demo excerpt) – The lyric and arrangement variations lend weight to the theory that this is possibly the first ever recorded demo of one of Bowie’s most famous songs.

Space Oddity (demo – alternative lyrics) (with Hutch) – Originally conceived as a song for a duo to perform, this is the first known version to feature John ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson again with lyric and arrangement variations.

Author: Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites.